Nate Tyler wants to invite you to “the dark side.”
Tyler, an SCA alum and one-time Google spokesperson, is taking on global warming with Lights Out San Francisco, a grassroots campaign to get locals to turn off their lights between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 20. Landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the TransAmerica Tower have all agreed to pull the plug.
Will Lights Out suddenly halt melting glaciers and put Al Gore out of business? Of course not. But the energy savings and reduced emissions, however minor, will be real and the message sent by those darkened SF icons should be heard loud and clear.
In fact, Los Angeles is already listening. The city plans to turn the lights off the fabled Hollywood sign, and the response from around the US has already prompted Tyler to schedule Lights Out America for March 29, 2008.
It’s always good to see SCA alums still fighting the good fight. Nate, a Connecticut native, says his mid-80s SCA hitch at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California opened his eyes to just how large the country is. If his Lights Out campaign catches on and helps thwart rising oceans that would otherwise consume at-risk coastal regions, our nation might just remain as big as he remembers it.